Tuesday, June 6, 2006

Excerpt:

“So, is there fortune at the bottom of the pyramid?

Fulton says to find this out and to also be able to best cater for this often misunderstood and under serviced market, marketers need to get personal experiences as to how those at the bottom of the pyramid live.

?Marketing managers need to live where the poor live. They need to, as part of their research, go into townships or informal settlements, spend extended time there to see what people eat and drink, and how they make purchase decisions? says Fulton.

He says looking at whether there is a demand for a good or service is only one side of the equation. The question as to whether there is a fortune at the bottom of the pyramid also obviously depends on the company?s production function and its cost structure.

Most importantly, he says, it depends on the willingness of those in companies to develop innovative approaches to reaching and servicing this market.

?Rather, the poor should be viewed as an entirely new market requiring new thinking about the volume/margin trade-off, measurement of value and the methods of production and distribution.? “

Read full story here.

Source: MarketingWeb (link opens in a new window)